I am copying all of my posts to www.xanga.com/randy_and_tricia now.  I will be closing this site next month, so if you want to continue to read my thoughts, be sure to head over and bookmark or subscribe there.

I am not sure that we - Jews, Moslems, and Christians, do not worship the same God.  (Perhaps especially Jews and Christians, as my understanding of Islam is limited.)  I don't doubt that God reveals himself to people outside of a given religion.  He is God, he can do that.  Their understanding of Him is limited and incomplete - but then, by nature of who God is and who people are, that is true of all religions and peoples.  No one can fully comprehend God.

What I am sure of is that there is only one way TO that God, and that is through Jesus Christ.  I don't believe that those who sincerely follow a false religion can actually be saved through their faithful following.  Jesus himself said he is the Way.  He said the path is narrow and there are few who find it.  Only those who find the True Way will be restored in relationship, will be saved from the wages of sin, which is death.

So, am I a universalist?  To believe that God may reveal himself to others, but not completely?  To believe that while there is only one way to God, there may be more than one way that desires to reach God?

Not that two years really comprises an era. . .

Since I turned 18, my life has been to some greater or lesser degree, divided into two year segments.

I spent two years as a college student living on campus.  Two more off-campus.  Two years teaching Jr. High in Texas.  Two years teaching 5th grade in Mansfield.

Then I came to Japan.  I spent two years here, single, developing a relationship, and discovering a new way of life - that of a foreigner with something to share.  These two years in Japan have been chronicled here on xanga under the blog name of "hopenafuture".

But now I am planning to spend the next two years here in Japan as a married woman.  My husband and I are starting a home and family together.  We are learning what it is to be one though we are two.  And we started a blog together too, at www.xanga.com/randy_and_tricia 

And so it will be that my life now will be chronicled, when I do write, or share photos, video, or whatever media I offer, on our site, rather than on my own.

Over the course of the next month, I plan to subscribe to the same subscriptions on that site as I have here.  I plan to post the same posts on both for a few weeks, then simply post links to my new posts here.  After about a month, and before our Christmas break, I plan to close this site down and use the other exclusively.

So, if any of you want to continue to get updates on my life - our life - here in Japan, please feel free to head over and subscribe (if you haven't already.)

Just thought I'd let everyone know.

Randy and I are almost finished with a weekend (plus) of watching the entire "Lord of the Rings" movies.  It's the first time for me to see the last one of the three, and I'm enjoying it. 

You will probably be able to see a video of Japanese taiko drums from a recent school festival soon.  I plan to upload that sometime in the next week.

I also want to get somewhere on editing our wedding video and wedding pictures.  It's on my "to-do" list for the week.

I'm bummed that I won't have any real motivation to watch the World Series this year.  My favorite team knocked Randy's favorite team out of the running, then got knocked out in the next round.

I am looking forward to a night of walking with a good friend tomorrow.  I enjoyed a mindless online game - "boomshine" while watching the movie earlier.  If you have time to waste, you could try beating my high score - 327.

Well, I'm off to bed.  More another time!

I was thinking tonight that it is interesting how people you meet make a lasting impression on you.  Sometimes in rather unique ways.

I had a professor for the honors course at Cedarville - McGoldrick.  He taught history, and Monday was our day with him.  Now he had some interesting oddities - he wore a rather dated plaid suit occasionally, for example.  His classes were precisely 50 minutes long - not a minute longer, but not a minute shorter either! 

Despite his rather formidable knowledge of history, the thing that I remember most from his class is a pet peeve he once shared with us.  (I'm sure he used a different term for it - but that's what it came down to.)

This annoyance was the use of the word "impact" to mean, "have an effect on."  The definition was origially, he pointed out, a collision or forceful strike.  And while an impact (forceful strike) would indeed have an effect on the item struck, he stated that to use the word in that way was incorrect.

Now, I've heard the word in that context so often, I suspected that the updated dictionaries probably reflect the common usage.  And indeed, I was correct, according to dictionary.com.  Interestingly, there was a "Usage note" that stated that the Usage panel overwhelmingly disagreed with that use of the word, but due to common usage it is likely to eventually be assimilated.

Anyway, I found it amusing that this little annoyance made enough of an impression that when I heard the word used incorrectly recently, my mind immediately went back to those Mondays at Cedarville, when I had to deal with cramped hands and astonishing amounts of information crowding my mind and notebook at the end of the class period.

You know, I also had to learn what passive voice was for his class - not because he taught grammar, but because he marked off on the history test essays for use of passive voice.  After receiving back an essay which had more red than pencil on the pages, I figured if I wanted to do well, I'd better brush up on my grammar too!